Here's thought: Install the performance monitor for Spiceworks and monitor the print server during a large print job. I learned a LOT about my main file server and was able to resolve long logon issues just by using the monitor!

Paul - Are you saying that your printer is still printing slowly when connected directly to your Win XP machine? If this is the case, did your printer ever print faster? Try updating the drivers on your XP machine & try again. What kind of printer are you using?

I have the same problem. Print server is a 2003 box. Jobs sent to it from across the WAN from Windows 7 machines take minutes to print whereas the same jobs from XP machines print quickly. I have noticed that the Win7 machines send megabytes of information across the wire before even the spooler populates a job in the queue. Once queued however, the job being sent to the printer, back across the wire, is only a few K and then it prints. Strange behavior I cannot find the root cause to.

This may sound crazy, but since I can duplicate the problem I'll throw my hat in. I have found that in some cases the length of the printer name can affect the time it takes to complete a print job by a significant amount. For example, I have an HP Laserjet 9040 that is known by two names on my network. One is "Sales HP LaserJet 9050 PCL 5e" and the other is "Sales HPLJ 9040 5e". Again, this is the same physical printer with identical drivers and settings. Print jobs sent to the first take minutes and jobs to the second take seconds. I don't have a logical explanation, but it's a pretty easy thing to try.

John, so what are you saying - the SHARE NAME needs to be shorter? or the Actual printer name? (or both?)

If I shorten the share name, I would need to go reinstall the printer on EACH machine

My problem is with ONE VISTA Machine seems that 7 and XP both work fine (both 32bit and 64bit makes no difference)

It's weird, PDF files (even small ones like 2 pages) take several MINUTES (could be 5 or more minutes) to print on this machine, and printing an email or even a test page takes 30 seconds to a minute - but printing test pages directly from the print server are practically instantaneous! so I even went as far as removing ADOBE X 10.4.x and put in 10.1.x AND changed the Driver from PCL 6 to PCL 5 and neither of those things made a difference. I wish I had Adobe 9 to test as well, but home office deleted that months ago!I guess I'll test a second queue and see what happens

FWIW, the printer type makes no difference - the LJ4250 AND the Lanier copier both exhibit the same exact results

I'd just like to throw it my two cents as to what caused my issues... I checked my switch and I was getting duplex errors on the port that the print server was on. I set it to the proper speed and duplex (or auto, depending on your situation) and it was like the floodgates opened... didn't need a reboot or anything...

1st Post

We were experiencing the same problem with windows 7 machines. Xp machines printing to a lan HP printer had no problem but win 7 there was a delay in spooling the document. I have solved it so far with unticking the box in port configuration that says Always print to this device even if its IP address changes